Despite the economic downturn, data plans are not among the items consumers can apparently do without, a new study indicates.
The survey found U.S. and European smartphone owners plan to increase their mobile phone data plan usage over the next two years, according to Reuters.
The question was posed in November at the height of the global economic mess.
Possibly more important, consumers who are not mobile data users said they plan to start, according to The Nielsen Company.
Possibly triggering such a response is the ability of laptop owners to connect to the Internet using cell phones. Although the cell phone market is saturated, cell phone operators see data plans as a promising revenue addition.
The survey of 50,000 U.S., British, French, German, Spanish and Italian consumers was conducted for Tellabs, maker of gear for carriers.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
